Macquarie Marketing Group research involving over 2,000 hours of senior executive time in major organisations indicates that there are now six key factors in retaining and growing business customers.
External Benchmarking
Best practice studies
International benchmarking
Customer Relationship Management
CRM effectiveness reviews
Coaching and development programs
Sales recovery programs
Value adding and relationship management
Customer Segmentation and Resource Modelling
Customer segmentation and value analysis
Sales resource modelling
Optimisation of sales and marketing structures
Tailoring of CRM processes to key segments
Customer Management Systems
OpTimizer 2000
Customer management / CRM systems
Marketing and Product Development
Clearly communicated market, segment and product strategies
Marketing effectiveness reviews
Marketing 'value adding' support to key accounts
Optimised product portfolios and timing
Customer Understanding and Analysis
Strategic customer reviews
Major customer loyalty studies
Suppliers that are differentiated in these six areas consistently achieve higher loyalty levels, superior margins and lower risk of business loss than their competitors.
However, most suppliers address only one or two of these areas, miss opportunities to leverage internal good practice and do not manage customers in an integrated way.
Lack of consistency in how they are managed and having to 'constantly reeducate the supplier' are two of the most common frustrations expressed by key account customers.
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